Cadets advance on the road

Prologue
Its the quarterfinals in section 3AAA.  I take in the 4 vs 5 game with Holy Angels hosting St. Thomas Academy.  Solid student sections from both sides on hand.  USA theme for the Holy Angels kids.  Jerseys for the St. Thomas Academy kids.  2 very similar teams with a solid big guy inside and limited guards.  Single game means no concessions.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 159 (63 courts, 2 new, 2 TV games, 131 varsity games)

Beverage Ticker: 834 ounces (7470 calories) + 9.7 liters (1370 calories)

• Pepsi: 356 ounces (4200 Calories) + 2 liters (840 Calories)
• Coke: 92 ounces (1080 Calories)+ 500 ml (200 Calories)
• Dr Pepper: 60 ounces (750 Calories) 
• Mug Root Beer: 40 ounces (520 Calories)
• Sprite: 56 ounces (660 Calories) + 500 ml (200 Calories)
• Water: 6.2 Liters + 200 ounces (0 Calories)
• Gatorade: 500 ml (40 Calories) + 40 oz (160 calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 19
Pizza Ticker: 12
Walking Taco Ticker: 12
Pork Sandwich Ticker: 6

Game Time:
Nate Chaffee doing his work inside for St. Thomas Academy early.  He puts back 2 misses and scores in the post.  The Cadets open up a 18-8 lead with 9:22 left in the 1st half.  Sam Boehne the only offense for Holy Angels in that stretch.  Dan Voxland would lead the really back for Holy Angels with 3 hoops.  Chaffee with a late hoop to push the St. Thomas lead to 5 at half.  29-24 St. Thomas Academy at the break.

Boehne scores inside to cut it to 3 but then a 9-0 run from the Cadets pushes it to double digits.  Chaffee 2 post hoops and a big Joe Harvey 3 in that run.  Chaffee with a putback countered by a Robbie Metcalf 3 point play and a hoop from Joey Oslund.  Holy Angels has the lead down to 42-39 with 9:25 left.  But Holy Angels couldn't get the most critical stops.  They give up back to back 3s, a tough driving hoop and a backdoor hoop.  All of that when they were able to counter those to keep the margin at 4.  That last backdoor hoop by Eddie Perry pushes the lead to 6 as we hit crunch time.  But St. Thomas Academy misses all 3 front ends to keep it close.  Holy Angels can't get a bucket though.  St. Thomas Academy seals it with 6 straight free throws in the double bonus.  Only 1 Holy Angels FG in the last 8:50 outside of a last second meaningless hoop.  St. Thomas Academy advances with a 60-52 win.

Post Game:
Forward Sam Boehne with 10 of his 14 in the 1st half for Holy Angels.  Guard Joey Oslund with 14, most of those in the 2nd half.  8 of those in a row to keep Holy Angels close.  They gave up too many easy touches to Nate Chaffee in the post.  Holy Angels finishes the season 9-16, 4-8 in the Tri-Metro.  They have a nice piece to build around for next year in Sam Boehne.

Joe Harvey lead St. Thomas Academy with 18 points, 11 of those in the 2nd half.  Nate Chaffee with 14 inside.  Sam Vascellaro with 12.  I thought they could have gotten Chaffee even more post touches than they did.  Harvey, Eddie Perry and Sam Schleper make a couple of more plays than the AHA guards and that's the difference.  St. Thomas Academy improves to 8-19 overall.  They'll play top seed Highland Park in the semis on Saturday night at Jefferson.  Very contrasting styles in that game as Highland Park will want to get out and go vs a slower pace from the Cadets.